Funnies

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Well, it seems that the Jesse MacBeth story has ground to a screaching halt. He's been exposed as a fraud and a repeating criminal with arrest warrants in two states. The point I'd raised yesterday was proven valid when Army spokesman John Boyce stated that there was no record that Mr. MacBeth had ever been in the Army, or at least with SF or the Rangers.

I know that one shouldn't attribute to malice what one can easily attribute to stupidity, but is it possible that this was just a bit of a scouting action? What possible reason could there have been for such an obvious fake? Pictures of Rangers and SF litter the internet. It shouldn't have been difficult for someone interested in committing such fraud to have at least dressed better. Is it really that unreasonable to consider that maybe MacBeth was a sacrifice to see what would happen? If I were of the mind to commit a fraud to discredit the Army, the military, Bush, America, whatever, and I was looking for what I'd need to do to make it believable, I'd go straight to here and work my way back, making notes not to do what they did. Things like "uniform is important," and "don't use someone with a criminal background," and "timeline, timeline, timeline." Maybe I've spent too much time reading The DaVinci Code reviews and I'm just in too much of a conspiracy mind.

This wasn't the most elaborate fraud ever committed, but it's still pretty amazing that within about 12 hours a person can go from being the darling of the Anti crowd to having the Anti crowd link to Blackfive and Hot Air, among others on the Democratic Underground webpage to refute the man they'd been hailing as a hero speaking truth to power not a day before. It is a testament to just how quickly and readily information is available, and how dangerous it is for someone to try and lie in a world where your Tacoma court record is available online.

I've talked before about how, as a recruiter, there is little incentive to lie to a prospect or applicant. I'd be lying if I said there was no incentive, but that small gain is easily offset by the loss when you no longer have the person's trust, and you never know who else that person may no. This is a lesson which seems to be something that the Antis need to learn.

This whole MacBeth fiasco is so fake. There is no way that MacBeth seriously thought he could get away with it. His story was so outrageous, his appearance so beyond the pale, and his history with the press frequent enough to make telling a consistent lie difficult. The producer who recorded, edited, and published this tripe is just as guilty. The producer of the original video obviously didn't verify the claims that MacBeth made. Keeping within the world created by MacBeth such verification would be impossible because everything was covered up. However the producer appears to have made no effort to verify that MacBeth was ever in the service. A simple ID check, DD4, DD214, or any other official documents would have, I'd think, be sufficient to at least verify he'd joined the Army. Either the producer is the most trusting soul on Earth, or he's complicit in the fraud and slander.